Wednesday, June 19, 2013

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) --
Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian farmers in the central and
southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, witnesses said.

Locals told
Ma'an that Israeli soldiers stationed in watchtowers opened fire at
Palestinian farmers near the separation fence in Khan Younis and Deir
al-Balah.

The gunfire hit several homes in the area, with no injuries reported.

Meanwhile, Israeli naval forces opened fire at fishermen off the coast of Khan Younis, witnesses added.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said there were no reports of the incidents.

Since
a ceasefire in November between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have
shot and killed three people in the Gaza Strip and injured at least 60,
amid numerous incursions into border areas of the coastal territory.

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Southern Gaza comes under sea, land gunfire

[
19/06/2013 - 09:25 AM ]

KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation
forces (IOF) fired from land and sea positions at the southern Gaza
Strip district of Khan Younis late on Tuesday night.Local sources told the PIC reporter that
IOF soldiers in Kissufim outpost fired at fields and residential
quarters on the eastern flank of the Khan Younis district before
midnight Tuesday.The sources said that no casualties were suffered in the shooting that targeted Qarara and Deir Al-Balah.At the same time, Israeli gunboats fired at the western coast of Khan Younis with no human or material losses reported.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Al Mezan14-6-2013At
7:00 pm, on Friday June 14th 2013, IOF positioned at Kissufim Crossing
sporadically opened fire into the eastern lands of Wadi l Salqa, south
east of Dier Al Balah, Omar Ghayad Salim Abu Moharib, 47, was shot with a
bullet in his left thigh while he was in his farm which is located in
the east of Wadi Al Salqa , 400 meters away from the eastern parts of
the separation fence. Abu Moharib was admitted to the surgery department
at Shuhada’a Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah, and his injury was
described as moderate. According to his affidavit to Al Mezan, Abu
Moharib stated that he was shot during irrigating zucchini crops in his
farm.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Al Mezan13-6-2013At approximately 7:50 pm, on Thursday June 13th 2013, Israeli
occupation forces moved under fire and air cover for about 300 meters
into Boura Abu Samra area, north of Beit Lahyia. The Israeli attack
forced the farmers to abandon their fields in case of further violence.
According to a farmer’s affidavit, three Israeli military jeeps stopped
in front of the area, and loaded a military force consisting of 30
soldiers began sporadically firing in the area. On the next day, June 14th
2013, at approximately 11:00 am, the farmer’s heard shooting then they
saw the force withdrew from the area inside the separation fence. No
causalities or injuries were reported.

[Thursday morning June 13 2013]
Israeli military vehicles, stationed across the border with Gaza, opened
fire at Palestinian farmers and homes in Abasan Al-Kabeera town, east
of the southern West Bank district of Khan Younis.

File - Paltoday.ps

Eyewitnesses
have reported the soldiers, stationed on the eastern border of Abasan,
fired several rounds of live ammunition in an attempt to force the
residents out of their lands, close to the border.

The farmers left lands, and their agricultural equipment, as they ran for their lives.

The area is one of many border areas, subject to frequent similar attacks targeting the farmers, their lands and their homes.

On the morning of Monday, 10th June, a
Palestinian man was injured by Israeli army fire while working in the
area of ​​Sufa, southern Gaza Strip, near the barrier with Israel.

Amer Abu Hadayed, 20 years, hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the European hospital (Photo by Rosa Schiano)

Hadayed Abu Amer, 20, was picking up
rocks and stones to be sold as building material along with his brothers
Yasser and Saher. The three had gone to work at 6:00 am aboard a
tuk-tuk.

An Israeli military jeep approached them
so they left the area, but returned soon after to continue working. At
this point the soldiers started shooting in their direction. At about
7:00am the three men, who were about 30 meters from the barrier that
separates Israel from the Gaza Strip, tried to flee to avoid being hurt,
but Amer was hit in the shoulder by one of the bullets.

Amer and one of his brothers fled while
the third followed them with the tuk-tuk. Amer was subsequently
transported to the hospital.

The three men earn 80 shekels for a day’s
work, of which 15 shekels usually goes to the driver of the tuk-tuk. In
practice the men earn about six euros each daily, working every day in
an area of extreme danger.

Amer is still in the intensive care unit
of the European hospital just south of Khan Younis. He said that the
soldiers had also shot at he and his brothers two weeks previously but
they had been able to escape.

Dr. Ihab Alassal reported that the bullet
entered and exited the body of Amer. His condition is now stable. He
reported an accumulation of blood in the pleural space, that is, the
space between the lung and the chest wall. Dr. Alassal added that Amer
is now under observation and being monitored for vascular access and
blood pressure. He added that if his condition worsens, Amer could
undergo exploratory surgery.

Amer in the hospital (Photo by: Rosa Schiano)

Amer’s family consists of ten members:
two parents, two daughters and six sons. One of the sons, Mahmoud, 24,
works as a barber, while three male children collect stones to be sold.
The rest are unemployed. They live in Khan Younis, in an area called Al
Junra, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud was with one of the brothers
outside the intensive care unit. He constantly repeated “I’m desperate,”
talking about the harsh economic conditions prevailing in his family.
He dreams of leaving Gaza, to move to Italy or elsewhere, in hope of a
better future.

“We will never return to pick up stones,”
said Yasser whose eyes told everything about the fear that this attack
had brought about.

The siege that Israel has illegally
imposed on the Gaza Strip has produced a failing economy and then on
another level mass unemployment. The limited amount of construction
material entering through the Karm Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom)
forces Palestinian companies to require people to collect stones for the
construction of buildings. The majority of these stones are found near
the border areas – where Palestinian buildings have been destroyed or
bulldozed by the Israeli army.

The arrangements for the ceasefire of
21st November 2012 established that the Israeli military forces should
“refrain from hitting residents in areas along the border” and “cease
hostilities in the Gaza Strip by land, by sea and by air, including
raids and targeted killings.”

However, Israeli military attacks by land
and sea have followed from the day after the ceasefire, and Israeli
warplanes fly constantly over the sky in the Gaza Strip. In the border
areas four civilians have been killed since the end of the “Pillar of
Defense” military offensive, and at least 90 civilians have been
wounded.

These attacks against the civilian
population of Gaza continue to occur, yet are met with silence by the
international community.

At approximately 7:00 am on Monday June 10th
2013, Israeli Forces positioned near the separation fence east of Khan
Younis, opened fire towards a number of rubble and gravel collectors
near Sofa Crossing, east of Al Fokhari town, east of Khan Younis. In the
attack, Amer Mazen Shehda Abu Hadayid, 21, was shot and injured with a
bullet entering his left shoulder and exiting his body through his upper
chest. Amer was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Gaza
European Hospital. According to Sahir Abu Hadayid’s affidavit to Al Mezan, the two,
together with their third brother, Yassir, 19, were collecting rubbles
at a distance of 100 meters from the separation fence. After spending
less than an hour at work, at approximately 7:00 am, Sahir saw an
Israeli military jeep idling inside the separation fence. Four soldiers
got out of the jeep and one of them spoke in Arabic, saying, “leave this
area”. We heard gunshots and we rushed to escape from the area. A few
moments later, Amer told me that he had been shot and he fell to the
ground. I saw blood on his shirt and immediately my brother and I
brought him to Gaza European Hospital. He was admitted to the intensive
care unit.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Al Mezan11-6-2013At 9:10 am on Tuesday, June 11th 2013, Israeli forces
positioned at the eastern separation fence opened fire towards farmers
in Al Qatbanyia area, east of Beit Hanoun in Gaza. The farmers in the
area left their fields for the day due to the chance of continued
violence by Israeli forces. No causalities or injuries were reported.

Al Mezan11-6-2013At approximately 5:00 am on Tuesday, June 11th 2013, Israeli
forces in three tanks and five bulldozers moved into lands in the Deir
Al Balah governorate, reaching 150 meters into the Gaza Strip. For two
hours the bulldozers razed lands near the separation fence, after which
they moved westward into the eastern parts of Wadi Al Salqa where the
Israeli incursion continued another four hours before withdrawal.

Monday, June 10, 2013

A twenty-one year old named Amer Abu
Hadayed was shot while working today in Gaza Strip’s buffer zone. His
routine of extracting stones used for building by hand was disrupted
when multiple shots were directed at him from one of four Israeli
vehicles located on the other side of the apartheid fence.

Amer was not a threat to the army, nor
was he threatening the safety of any Israeli. He is a civilian that was
doing his job along with three coworkers in a field east of Rafah, near
the Sufa landfill.

Myself and another International activist
heard the gunfire from a distance while accompanying other harvesters
north of the area where the aggression ensued.

Abu Hadayed gave us an account of the
event while in a frail condition at the European hospital’s ICU unit.
The soldier that fired upon him stepped out from one of three jeeps that
regularly patrol the border which is in coordination with an armored
hummer that has a large, remote controlled gun mounted on top of it.
This sort of weaponry is supposedly for the security of the rest of the
patrol.

Amer Abu Hadayed in the hospital (Photo by Nicholas Lillard)

This attack of a young man proceeds a
violation that incidentally was inflicted upon another twenty-one year
old named Ahmad Hamdan eight days ago. Ahmad was injured by a bullet on the second of June, the impact caused a fracturing of his right femur.

In Amer’s case he did not receive any
bone fracturing and based upon the placement of the wound such an injury
would be a minor concern compared to the alternatives. The bullet
entered the left side of his upper chest, barely missing his lung. The
path of the projectile also missed hitting the auxiliary artery that is
mere inches from the lung, this location also holds an extensive amount
of nerves which were apparently missed as well. Amer moved his arm
around to show that he continues to have at least partial range of
motion. He will remain in the ICU for another day so that any potential
complications can be monitored and dealt with immediately. The nurses
said that his bleeding is minimal and that they’re mostly watching his
recovery to make sure no hemorrhaging is going to take place.

This incident is nothing short of a crime
that was orchestrated by the Israeli army to further oppress the
Palestinian people. It is a clear violation of Amer Abu Hadayed’s human
rights and yet another example of the continued ethnic cleansing the
Zionist regime perpetrates on a regular basis.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Following
disengagement from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, Israel unilaterally and
illegally established a so-called “buffer zone”, an area prohibited to
Palestinians along the land and sea borders of the Gaza Strip. The precise area
designated by Israel as a “buffer zone” is not clear and this Israeli policy is
typically enforced with live fire. The establishment of the ‘buffer zone’ is
illegal under both Israeli and international law.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

5th June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Gal·la| Gaza, Occupied Palestine
Farmers are working in Gaza buffer zone under threat of Israeli
soldiers, tanks, bullets, etc. This video shows the difficulty of daily
life for farmers in Khuza’a, south of Gaza Strip.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Al Mezan4-6-2013At approximately 5:30 pm on Tuesday June 4th 2013, Israeli
military forces in three bulldozers moved under fire and air cover into
Gaza reaching a distance of 200 meters from the fence. They headed
towards Damara area northeast of Beit Hanoun. Farmers were forced to
leave their fields, mostly melon fields, in case of further violence.
According to Al Mezan documentation, the Israeli bulldozers began
digging a trench and razing the lands nearby the separation fence. After
few minutes, a huge explosion was heard in the area from the same
force, which withdrew from the area an hour after the incursion began.
No causalities or injuries were reported.

About this blog

This is a blog about Gaza farmers, workers and all the civilian population living in Gaza Strip rural communities along the Green Line, suffering from daily Israeli attacks and resisting the implementation of a so called "buffer zone" by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Note: this blog is focusing on Israeli attacks on civilians inside or around the so called "buffer zone". Attacks on resistance fighters, or attacks, usually airstrikes on civilians further inside the Gaza Strip, or along the Egypt border (apart from the eastern areas such as Al Shoka or the airport area) are usually not mentioned. For the attacks of the Israeli Navy see http://fishingunderfire.blogspot.com/